Name of short story

[remitman1000]

I am trying to remember the name of a short story that I read 15-20 years ago. It is similar in theme to Wes Craven's They or Peter Jackson's The Frighteners.

The story starts with a woman who sees someone die and then sees some sort of shadow consume the dead person's soul. The shadow begins to chase her, and she comes to realize that it uses fear to scare people to death (ie. scaring them so that they fall from a high place). The woman also finds out that the shadow cannot harm her if she 1) has the lights on, 2) remains still, or 3) stays under the blankets. The shadow cuts the power though and is about to scare the woman to death when her cat gives birth. The birth somehow kills the shadow and all the souls that it had consumed go free.

Sound familiar?

Let me know what it's called and who wrote it.

Thanks in advance. This has been bugging me for months.

[remitman1000]

Come on guys. This doesn't sound familiar to anyone?

[j. d. worthington]

Just so you don't feel neglected, I'll pop in and say that it doesn't ring a bell with me at this point. You might check in with Gollum or Ravenus, see if either of them (or Chris, who has an encyclopedic knowledge of darn near everything) can help you out. If the bells start ringing, I'll let you know... Meantime, good luck; this can be a frustrating position....

[GOLLUM]

Sorry rings no bells, hopefully someone can help out...